The Story of Holly Clark
by annoxford
Summary: Holly's old neighbor, James Addison, came to her one day and offered to take her on a "trip." That "trip" would have killed her if she weren't a Blutbad. Now, alone in the woods, she must struggle to survive.
1. Chapter 1

"HOLLY CLARK! GET OUT OF THAT CAR AND MAKE YOURSELF USEFUL!" her mother scolded.

"Awwww." Holly complained.

"Holly..." Mr. Clark warned.

Holly, seven years old, hopped out of the car belonging to her adoptive parents and picked up a bag of groceries from the trunk. She carried it inside the house and set it down on the kitchen floor. Then she went back outside and got another bag to bring in.

After she and her parents were done bringing the groceries inside, Holly asked " Can I go play outside?"

"Yes." Mr. Clark replied. "But you have to stay _in the backyard. _Do I make myself clear?" _  
_

"Yessir." Holly replied. Usually, her parents weren't so rough when it came to small things like going outside in the backyard, but Holly had a bit of a habit of leaving the yard and going to the woods.

She really couldn't help it. Sometimes, it felt like the woods were calling her, and sometimes, that pull was too hard to resist.

But Holly had been teaching herself control to avoid the consequences of leaving home without permission, and so far, it was working.

Holly went into the backyard while her parents brought the last of the stuff inside. Holly sniffed the air. For some reason, Holly had always had abnormally strong sight, smell, and hearing, and although she wasn't quite sure why, it came in handy when she was doing something she wasn't supposed to. Her parents never, ever caught her because she could always hear them coming.

Today, Holly smelled someone than her parents. _Do I really smell that bad? _She wondered, turning her head and trying to smell her armpits. But it was not herself in need of a shower. It was someone else.

Holly looked around. The leaves rustled, and someone stepped out of the bushes.

"Mr. Addison?" Holly asked.

The person was James Addison, Holly's former neighbor. He'd lived near them before the Clark's moved about a year ago."Hello, Holly. I see you remember me. Would you like to take a trip?"

"To where?" Holly asked.

"That's a surprise." Mr. Addison.

Holly jumped up and clapped her hands. "Yay! I love surprises!" she exclaimed.

Mr. Addison smiled. "Good."

"I have to go pack!" Holly exclaimed, and she ran towards the house.

"Wait!" Mr. Addison yelled. Holly turned around. "There are two things. This is a no-packing trip, OK? And second of all, you have to very quiet, because no one else is allowed to go on the trip. It's a private Holly trip. And we don't want to upset anyone who wasn't invited, would we?"

Holly shook her head. She followed Mr. Addison out to his truck and got inside with him. "Now you have to lie down and not get up until I tell you." Mr. Addison instructed.

"Why?" Holly asked.

"Because otherwise, you can't go on the trip." Mr. Addison replied.

"OK." Holly replied. She got down on the floor, but an uneasy feeling was beginning to rise in her stomach. Her mom and dad had always told her never to get into a car with a stranger. But Mr. Addison wasn't a stranger, was he?


	2. Chapter 2

HOLLY WAS GETTING TIRED OF WAITING. Her face was still on the rough rug of Mr. Addison's truck, and it stank of icky feet and that perfume her mom put on the furniture sometimes. But mostly it smelled like feet. "Are we there yet?" she whined.

"Almost there." Mr. Addison promised.

"But you said that _last time."_

"Stop whining!" Mr. Addison barked. Holly flinched.

They drove in silence until the truck stopped. "We're here." Mr. Addison announced.

_Finally. _Holly thought. She sat up and felt her face. The pattern of the rug had left little red imprints on her cheek. Mr. Addison opened the door for her and she jumped out. Holly finally got a good look at where they were the woods. "Awesome! The woods!" she exclaimed, jumping up and down.

Mr. Addison smiled and opened the trunk of the truck. "I need you to carry some things for me. Can you do that?" he asked. He plopped a sleeping bag, backpack, and camp stove onto the ground. "Put the backpack on." he instructed. Holly did as told. She staggered under the weight.

"It's too heavy." she said.

Mr. Addison calmly put two straps across Holly's waist. "Waist straps are good for heavy loads." he told her. He strapped the sleeping bag onto the back of the backpack. Then he thrust the camp stove into Holly's arms. After everything was unloaded, Holly and Mr. Addison tramped through the woods.

Holly wished Mr. Addison had let her get on some clothes that were better for walking through the woods. She was wearing a white shirt with a purple butterfly on it, blue shorts, and a plastic pink barette with flowers on it that kept falling out. At least she was wearing boots. They were hiking boots, ones that her father had bought for her for one of the Clarks' few camping trips, and she loved them.

Holly remembered that Mr. Addison had lent them equipment for these trips.

"Where are we going?" Holly asked.

"You'll see." Mr. Addison replied.

Holly frowned. "Why are you being so mysterious, Mr. Addison?" she asked.

"It's a surprise trip. The final destination is a secret until you see it."

Holly was starting to get uneasy, but she wasn't quite sure why. They hiked for a long time, until Holly's feet started to hurt. "Are we there yet?" she whined, like seven year-olds do when they begin to get tired._  
_

"Almost there." Mr. Addison replied. Holly sighed and rolled her eyes.

He led her to a cabin. _A little house in the big woods! Like in the book!_ she thought excitedly. Mr. Addison opened the door. That was when Holly realized how dark it was. "Mr. Addison? I have to go home now. Mom and Dad get angry when I'm not in before dark." Holly said.

"Oh, Holly, I forgot to tell you. You can't go home." Mr. Addison told her.

"But I have to go home." Holly insisted.

"No." Mr. Addison said sternly. He put down his stuff. Then, without warning, he ran over and grabbed her.


	3. Chapter 3

HOLLY SCREAMED. "I WANT TO GO HOME!" She howled.

"NO! YOU ARE NOT GOING HOME!" Mr. Addison bellowed.

"LET ME GO HOME!" Holly screamed. She kicked and flailed and bit. Then something absolutely terrifying happened.

Her vision went red.

An animal roar came out of nowhere.

Mr. Addison screamed in pain.

When Holly's normal vision returned, she was crouched on her hands and knees. Her shirt and shorts were stained with grass, dirt and mud.

The salty taste of blood invaded her mouth.

Mr. Addison was lying on the ground, bleeding from his leg, screaming something about her being a wild animal.

It didn't take a rocket scientist to figure out where the blood in her mouth had come from.

Mr. Addison scrambled up and ran away.

There was so much blood.

Holly's head was spinning. _What happened? _She wondered. _What have I done._

She stood up, but her vision got spotty, so she fell and landed on her back. Images and memories swirled around in her head. Blood. Screaming. Landing on the ground. More screaming.

She tried to stand up, but she stumbled as more images surfaced.

It was too much for a seven year-old to process.

Holly's vision blurred. She fell on the ground, and then everything went black.


	4. Chapter 4

NINE YEARS LATER...

HOLLY WOKE WITH A START, HER HEART POUNDING. She could still vividly relive the events that led her living here, in her Tree House. To Holly, the Tree House was Home. It had everything she needed and not much more.

She slipped off her cot and stoop up. Her hair, which had grown out long, flopped onto the floor with a _thud. _Holly re-braided it daily, so she did just that.

She sniffed the air. There were two unfamiliar scents in the air tonight. A man and a woman.

Holly slid down the ladder that led up to her Tree House. She involuntarily shivered, even though she was wearing two shirts and a jacket. She tipped her head up a little. _Sniff. Sniff._

As the unfamiliar people got closer, Holly hid in the bushes, listening. None of what they were talking about made any sense to Holly, so she hid there until she determined that it was safe to come out again.

She tip-toed in the direction of the Plant Man, which is what she called the man who grew plants nearby. They weren't plants Holly had ever seen before, and he did unusual things with the plants after he picked them.

Holly watched the two people walk dangerously close to Plant Man's territory. They were a man and a woman, she realized. _Stay away from Plant Man. He'll shoot you with his gun! He's really territorial! _Holly wanted to shout, be she was too petrified to move or speak. This fear of strange people, especially men, stemmed from her encounter with Mr. Addison.

All of a sudden, Plant Man burst out of the brush, waving his gun. He shouted something and the man and the woman got down and lay on the ground. They smelled like fear. Holly watched. Plant Man started yelling at them and pointed his gun at him.

_He's going to kill them! _A little voice in Holly's head screamed.

No. He would not kill them. Holly was too nice to just sit here and watch them die.

She hefted her braid and crept toward Plant Man, who was still yelling.

She stepped on a stick. _CRACK!_

Holly froze and stifled a gasp.

Plant Man looked up, moving his gun around. He took a few steps toward her.

Holly decided on the element of somewhat surprise. She burst out of the bushes, waving her braid like a lasso. She threw it at Plant Man. It was off and it just glanced off of him. _Damn! _She thought, shocking herself with the swear word. Holly aimed her hair at Plant Man again. The hair wrapped around his neck just as loud _BAM! _shattered the night. Pain exploded in Holly's stomach. There was another _CRACK.__  
_

Holly was scared. _What's happening? _She wondered. Plant Man was lying on the ground, and his neck was on a funny angle.

She ran. Ran as fast she could. _Away. _Was her only thought, what her instincts told her to do. _I have to get away._


	5. Chapter 5

**Hi guys. School has been keeping me busy and I _COMPLETELY _forgot about my Fanfiction! This is disgraceful! No updates in _TWO MONTHS! _*Crowd gasps******Dodges poorly aimed rotten fruits thrown by booing crowd*****. So, to make it up to you, my goal is to write for you, not one, but _TWO _chapters of Holly Clark for you today! So now, without further ado, the Worst Updater of Fanfiction History, presents to you, Chapter Five!**

HOLLY STAYED HIDDEN IN THE BUSHES. Watching. Waiting.

She wanted to run all the way back to her Tree House, but her stomach really hurt. It hurt too much to sit up, even. Every time she moved too much, she thought _Owie _as a fresh wave of pain hit her.

She managed to haul herself up and run to his tent. She knew there were good things, useful things, in there. Pots and pans and a sleeping bag were all grabbed, as well as matches and a camp lantern. As she rummaged through the contents of the tent, the couple got up and ran away.

It was too much strain on her injury. Holly barely made it into the bushes before she felt light-headed, the world started spinning like it did after she played on the spinny-thing at the playground too long, and little spots appeared in her vision.

Holly fell down, hit her head on a rock, and everything went dark.

...

When Holly woke up again, there were new unfamiliar, people at Plant Man's tent. They were walking around with little axes, cutting down everything he had grown.

_Why are they doing that? _Holly wondered. _Why are they killing his plants?_

She sniffed the air. There was someone, a man, very close to her. Slowly, she inched away from the direction from which his scent was coming, being careful not to let the leaves rustle and alert him of her presence.

Luckily, he was too busy looking at the tree. Holly didn't know why he would be so interested in a tree. She just saw trees as a place to pee, or maybe a thing to climb. She didn't like peeing on trees, even though she'd spent nine years in the woods. It was incredible that, after all this time, she still remembered what it was like to use a toilet.

He took out two pincer things-_tweezers, _Holly remembered, her mother had used them to removed a splinter from her foot, once-and took something off the tree.

Holly got up. She tottered and almost fell down. She held the pots and pans in one hand, because they were all connected by a little string, and the lantern in the other. The sleeping bag was on her back, and the matches were safely tucked away in her jacket pocket.

Holly ran, thinking that the man was too busy picking things off the tree. But apparently what he was doing was less important than pursuing her, because that is what he did- he chased her. Holly turned around and growled at him. _Keep out!_ It told him. _Get out and stay out! _It must have worked, because he stopped dead in his tracks. She turned around and ran away.

...

Holly made it back to her Tree House. She clumsily made her way up the ladder. She dumped her new possessions on the ground and collapsed onto her bed. She curled up into a little ball, moaning.

She wished, like in all times of despair, that her mother and father were here, beside her, ready to comfort her. Or, better yet, take her home to her Barbies and her stuffed animals and her dollhouse and her tea parties with Raggedy Anne and Mr. Bear every Sunday.

And a toilet. Holly would really love a toilet instead of a tree.


	6. Chapter 6

HOLLY WOKE UP LATE THE NEXT MORNING, FEELING MISERABLE. Her stomach hurt worse than the time she got the Barfs, as her dad called it, and that had been a _very_ unpleasant experience for both her and her tummy.

Slowly, she sat up, wincing and tearing up. She blinked the water out of her eyes just long enough to see that it was light out. She wished she had some of the strange-tasting purple liquid that her mother had always given her when she was still Holly Clark of 34 Clearview Ave and not Holly Clark, wild child.

The pain in her stomach became excruciating, forcing her to lean back in pain. A familiar twinge of hunger twisted in her gut, but no matter how hard she tried, Holly could not find the strength to stand, or even sit.

Whimpering, she curled in a ball and closed her eyes.

_How am I supposed to bring food? _she wondered. _Will someone bring it to the Tree House for me?_

Holly remembered all the times she had gotten sick in her first months out in the forest, from exposure. Then, she had not adapted to the wild lifestyle. Every time she caught an illness that left her bedridden, she had nearly starved. These experiences had taught her to make and emergency stock of food and water and the roots that made her feel good after she ate them, even though she wasn't fond of their taste.

But Holly's tummy hurt too much to even move. How could she get to her food without hurting herself?

Holly spent lots of time thinking about this new big issue added to her already quite long list of big issues.

Eventually, she drifted off into a restless sleep.

...

The day went quickly for Holly. She drifted in and out of consciousness. Most of the time, she wasn't awake for more then twenty minutes every time. And each time, she was not alert. She didn't even sniff or strain to hear if someone was coming. She just lay there and blinked the light out of her eyes, thought, and went back to her state of half-death.


End file.
